Latest from Vanessa McCray

Beverly Hall burnished her reputation as the make-no-excuses superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools using rapidly rising test scores from schools in the district’s poorest neighborhoods. There was one big problem: The test results were fake. In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported suspicious scores on the state’s...

Posted: a day ago
| By Vanessa McCray - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After yet another deadly school shooting, a fed up Decatur mother decided she couldn’t wait any longer for change to come. Clare Schexnyder heard the reports of gunfire that killed at least 17 people this week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She watched the footage of SWAT teams rescuing students. And...

Teachers at Atlanta’s Perkerson Elementary School would need to reapply for their jobs before they could return to their classrooms next school year under a proposal aimed at turning around the low-performing school. The Atlanta Board of Education is scheduled to vote March 5 on a “full school reconstitution” for the school...

A Fulton County jury sided with Atlanta Public Schools in a lawsuit filed against the district by a teacher who alleged she was fired after she blew the whistle on the districtwide cheating scandal. On Tuesday, “the jury found the non-renewal” of Imogene Redwine’s contract “was due to the employee’s performance...

Atlanta Public Schools plans to buy property that district officials said is needed to build a new school at the former Woodson Elementary School site. The Atlanta Board of Education approved spending $83,200 on Monday to purchase a nearly half-acre residential site at 698 Francis Place, N.W. That price is the property’s appraised value...

Atlanta school board chairman Jason Esteves touted Superintendent Meria Carstarphen’s work so far this school year during a report on her mid-year evaluation. “As the new board, we are pleased with her progress to implement our collective vision for the school system. We remain on target with the five-year strategic plan...

Clayton County Public Schools will convert a professional learning day into a full day of class as part of its plan to make up time lost to inclement weather. The school district announced Friday it would hold a full day of instruction on Feb. 16, instead of an early dismissal for a professional learning day. Clayton also will move its...

A Georgia nonprofit that supports statewide early learning received a $700,000 grant for research, creating a leadership academy, and offering training to parents. Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, or GEEARS, announced Thursday it had received the money from the Atlanta-based Goizueta Foundation. "The funding...

Atlanta Public Schools is seeking hundreds of parents, teachers, and community members willing to serve on school governance teams. Each school in the district needs two parent or guardian representatives and two educator representatives to fill two-year terms on the governing bodies, or “GO Teams,” that help provide direction...

The Atlanta Board of Education’s ethics commission on Tuesday dismissed a complaint against board member Byron Amos. The independent ethics panel met for less than an hour to review and then dismissed the complaint filed by Amos’ December runoff election opponent, Keisha Carey. Carey, whom Amos defeated by about 70 votes, contended...

Elementary schools in Atlanta’s east-side Jackson cluster scheduled two meetings for next week to discuss a proposed change to attendance boundaries for some neighborhoods. School officials are reviewing a rezoning plan that would move the Summerhill neighborhood from Parkside Elementary School to Barack and Michelle Obama Academy...